Andrew Lam, who was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1975 when he was 11 years old, is a writer and an editor with New America Media, a short-story writer, and, for eight years, a commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He also contributes regularly to the Huffington Post.

Lam's essays have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Baltimore Sun, the Atlanta Journal, and the Chicago Tribune.

He has written essays for Mother Jones, The Nation, San Francisco Focus, Proult Journal, In Context, Utne, California Magazine, Huffington Post, New America Media, and many other news outlets.

Lam's short stories are also anthologized widely and taught in many Universities and colleges. His short stories have appeared in many literary journals, including Manoa Journal, Crab Orchard Review, Nimrod International, Michigan Quarterly West, Zyzzyva, Transfer Magazine, Alsop Review, Terrain, and others.

Lam’s awards include the Society of Professional Journalist Outstanding Young Journalist Award (1993) and Best Commentator in 2004; The Media Alliance Meritorious awards (1994); The World Affairs Council's Excellence in International Journalism Award (1992); the Rockefeller Fellowship in UCLA (1992); and the Asian American Journalist Association National Award (1993; 1995).

He was honored and profiled on KQED television in May 1996 during Asian American heritage month.

Lam was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University during the academic year 2001-02, studying journalism. He lectured widely at many universities and institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Brown, UCLA, USF, UC Berkeley, University of Hawaii, William and Mary, Rice, Indiana, Hong Kong, and Loyola university, and many others.

A member of Academy of Arts and Science, Lam was featured in the documentary My Journey Home, which aired on PBS nationwide on April 7, 2004, where a film crew followed him back to his homeland Vietnam.

His book, Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora recently won the Pen American Beyond the Margins Award in 2006, and was short-listed for the Asian American Literature Award.

Lam's first short-story collection, Birds of Paradise, is due out in 2013, and a story from it was read on Symphony Space, Selected Shorts in New York.

Shelf Unbound listed Lam's book of essays, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres (2010), among its top 10 Indies of 2010.

Lam holds a Master in Fine Arts from San Francisco State University in creative writing, and a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from UC Berkeley.